Get Yours Before You Give Yours

With the continuing high unemployment rates and the questionable political maneuvers, it’s becoming more and more obvious: Black Americans should at least ensure that they get unquestioned results from the Obama Administration before giving him unyi

With the continuing high unemployment rates and the questionable political maneuvers, it’s becoming more and more obvious: Black Americans should at least ensure that they get unquestioned results from the Obama Administration before giving him unyielding support in 2012.

At some point, most Black Americans are going to admit that they are just as enslaved to archaic racial loyalties as the “oppressors” that they claim to abhor.

Years ago, justice and common sense in America were often blurred and blinded by the realities of race throughout the nation: namely, that the application and practice of the “American Way” of equal safety, opportunity, and citizenship were subject to the prism of race expectations. It was common knowledge that many White Americans would obscure the facts when it came to addressing mob violence, voting improprieties, and social inadequacies solely because of their allegiance to the color of one’s skin – just as Black Americans now are doing politically with President Obama, despite the economic and societal facts laid before us.

No: blind political allegiance based on race does not have the immediacy of terror that racial violence had. Yet, both could have the same effect – destruction within Black communities – if the current political trend continues for the 2012 election.

High unemployment numbers – a consideration that should have made this a top priority for the Obama Administration and Democrats leading Congress starting in 2009 – have maintained long after the ideologues chased down the closest version of government-run healthcare that they could pass last year and the failed expansion of governmental economic influence (i.e., government spending) passed as the stimulus package 2 years ago. Yet, despite statements from the White House noting that “…a high tide lifts all boats…” (a comment that, if made by a president other than Mr. Obama, probably would have led to another round of Kanye West claiming that folks “…doesn’t care about Black people…”), Black Americans remain the only electorate that are staunch behind the president, all while being the segment of Americans most suffering collectively during these past few years.

And this political groupthink when it comes to the president only begs the comment: at least get something out of the deal before you pledge your undying support to this administration’s re-election bid for 2012.

I’m not telling Black Americans everywhere to vote Republican without a reason to do so. Despite the newest poll numbers submitted by ABC News and The Washington Post suggesting that Mitt Romney would beat President Obama if the election were conducted today, there is not necessarily a pressing set of reasons that should prompt Black voters to wildly swing their collective vote against the incumbent president. At the same time, though, certainly there is not an indication that President Obama’s leadership has yielded a beneficial result for Black America overall other than the over-inflated, short-lived “feel-good” phenomenon that can with the rush of people onboard to say they voted for America’s first African-American president.

Nothing in the Obama Administration’s tenure reflects a symbiotic relationship between the electorate that granted him 97 percent of their votes and the agenda promoted by the 44th president. From the distancing from Attorney General Holder after Holder’s comments on race in America during Black History Month 2009 to attacking the DC Voucher Program for poor Black children later that year and the failure to address the economy before health care reform, financial regulatory reform, and the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” so far in this term, President Obama has been off-tune with the concerns Black Americans are shouting about, even as they collectively continue to sing his praises.

If nothing else, the actions of this administration have repeatedly shown that President Obama is more committed to his political ideologies (and political contemporaries within the left wing of the Democratic Party) than he is to the poor, young, and suffering (and, yes, even Black) within America – those very same people that carried him into the White House in 2008. And, despite the hard economic times and harsh realities that household funds are running low and government assistance is drying up, the president is doubling down on his ideological loyalties with a keen understanding that support from the poor and Black voting electorates will still continue to show up at the polls for him in 2012 regardless of his actions. Diving into a philosophical battle with the state of Indiana by threatening to withhold from Indiana up to $4.3 billion in Medicaid funding for low income healthcare if the Hoosier State does not reverse its recent vote to defund Planned Parenthood (as reported by liveaction.org by way of the Associated Press) shows once again that appealing to philosophical considerations and political supporters (i.e., campaign donors such as the pro-choice constituency) is prioritized over meeting the needs of the constituents that grant the president its unwavering support – and its collective vote. Putting in-need Americans on the chopping block to make a partisan statement in times of extended economic hardship is not the unifying leadership President Obama campaigned on in 2008, the type of leadership that prompted masses of Americans to flock to the polls in an unprecedented fashion. It merely reflects more of the disappointing and deflating same from American politicians.

All I am saying is: if a Black voter in 2012 is going to be more Klan-like (i.e., race-based in acting) than Christ-like (i.e., truth-based in critical thinking) in the upcoming presidential campaign, at least get something out of the deal. Even scandalous politicos involved in the system on both sides of the aisle do this, working for their financial or political cut in the process. People like me that refuse to be bought off at least know that our piece of the pie is the satisfaction of knowing that we pursue a price that has no tangible monetary value but has historical consistency with the best of our legacy.

The numbers are clear: so far, conditions are not getting better under this administration. So, if you’re going to give yours – be it your vote, your money, or your time for this president for 2012 re-election – just make sure that you get yours in the process for your efforts. If Black America can’t do that and thus collectively decides to line up behind this president without anything to show for it other than skin color allegiance, it will show itself to be just the same as all-White juries that ignored facts for decades, skirting justice for Black Americans all for the same of skin color allegiance. And, just the same, perhaps our collective actions today will have the same effect as those “oppressors” those decades ago: directly or implicitly sending more Black youth to the gallows, keeping more Black people in poverty, and creating a greater chasm between Black America and the rest of America – all while passionately making the plea why this president deserves 4 more years without anything tangible to support our case.

Lenny McAllister is a syndicated political commentator and the host of “Launching Chicago with Lenny McAllister” on The Talk of Chicago 1690 AM WVON (www.wvon.com). Find him Saturdays with host TJ Holmes and fellow pundit Maria Cardona on “CNN Saturday Morning” at 9:30 AM CDT (10:30 Eastern / 7:30 AM Pacific.) He is the author of the upcoming edition of the book, “The Obama Era, Part I (2008-2010): Diary of a Mad Black PYC (Proud Young Conservative).” Follow him at http://www.twitter.com/lennyhhr&nbsp; and on Facebook at http://www.tinyurl.com/lennyfacebook .